CHAPTER 11. 



THE GATEWAY OF THE EAST. 



Constantinople — The romance of the city on the Golden Horn — The reality 

 — Monuments of interest — The gulf between Europe and Asia — Pecu- 

 liarities of the East— The Haider-Pasha Ismid railway — A climb to 

 the Anatolian plateau — Lack of comfort on the present Anatolian 

 railway — Probabilities of the future — Konia — Its streets — Improve- 

 ment in the district under the administration of Ferhit Pasha. 



Constantinople 1 



What a whirl of thought the word awakens ! 

 What stirring scenes it conjures up of wild romance 

 and strange vicissitude ! It would indeed be strange 

 if imagination were not fired or the pulses quickened 

 on approaching the far-famed Turkish capital. For 

 from the day, two thousand five hundred and sixty - 

 nine years ago, when the enterprising little band of 

 Greeks propelled their galleys up the Hellespont and 

 landed on the shores of the Golden Horn to build 

 their town, in obedience to the Delphic oracle, "over 

 against the city of the blind," up to the present 

 time, when an Eastern potentate sits on the throne 

 of the emperors of Byzantium, the stronghold of 

 the gateway of two continents, whether as Byzan- 

 tium, New Bome, or Constantinople, has at all times 

 woven a spell of fascination over the minds of men, 

 and burned for itself in the scroll of history — as no 



